BELIEVE IT OR NOT, AUTHORITIES SAY A MARRIED COUPLE FAILED TO SAFEGUARD THEIR NONVERBAL AUTISTIC FIVE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER AND MISDIRECTED SEARCH EFFORTS AWAY FROM WATER BEFORE SHE WAS FOUND DEAD… AND BOTH PARENTS ARE NOW IN CUSTODY FACING CRIMINAL CHARGES.
Saylor Hayes was five years old.
She was nonverbal and autistic.
The child was last seen on Sunday, August 30.
Her family had been staying at a vacation rental property in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.
Following her disappearance, an intensive search began across the area.
Authorities said the search involved hundreds of people and multiple agencies.
Saylor had a tendency to wander off.
Because of that history of elopement, she was supposed to wear a Project Lifesaver transmitter.
The young girl had started wearing the monitoring equipment in 2024.
Yet the device had been removed before the family departed from their Virginia home for the vacation.
Saylor was not wearing the tracking transmitter when she walked away from the rental property.
It remains unclear why she had stopped wearing the device.
The search continued through the night and into the following morning.
Around 9:45 a.m. on Monday, August 31, searchers found the five-year-old dead.
Saylor was discovered in a waterway situated close to the family’s rental property.
Her cause of death was not immediately confirmed.
An autopsy for the child was scheduled to take place on Friday, September 4.
Just hours prior to her arrest, Geordyn Nichole Hayes posted an undated photograph of Saylor to Facebook.
Alongside the picture of her late daughter, she wrote, “Mommy’s little angel.”
Then, on Tuesday, September 1, law enforcement officers took both parents into custody in Tennessee.
The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests in a formal statement that same day.
John Herb Hayes III is 70 years old.
Geordyn Nichole Hayes is 31 years old.
Both parents were charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk/wilfully abandoning a child.
According to an arrest affidavit, John and Geordyn were accused of putting their daughter at an unreasonable risk of harm.
The affidavit alleged they placed Saylor “at an unreasonable risk of harm affecting her life and safety by failing to provide supervision and safeguards appropriate for a severely nonverbal, autistic, 5-year-old child with a known affinity to water and a history of elopement.”
Authorities also accused the parents of actively hindering the search operation.
Police said the couple gave misleading directions while personnel were attempting to locate the girl.
“[They] encouraged search efforts to be directed toward the use of tracking technology, despite knowing that the child was not wearing the monitoring device,” police said in the statement.
“[They] further directed search efforts away from the nearby body of water.”
Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver publicly addressed the arrests and the allegations connecting the parents to the girl’s death.
“Parents and caregivers have a fundamental responsibility to protect children who cannot protect themselves,” Sheriff Weaver said.
“When the evidence establishes probable cause to believe that a child has been unlawfully placed in circumstances that endanger that child’s safety, law enforcement has a responsibility to act.”
Weaver described Saylor as “a vulnerable 5-year-old child who depended upon the adults responsible for her care and protection.”
“She deserved to be safe,” the sheriff said.
“She deserved to be protected.”
John and Geordyn are expected to be returned to Georgetown County after the conclusion of extradition proceedings.
It was not immediately clear whether either parent had retained legal representation or entered a plea to the charges.
The investigation into the case remains open.
The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
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